Looking back at anger: wrath in Anglo-Saxon England

Abstract

Today, emotions receive much attention. We are invited to talk about our feelings, ‘emotion talk’ being a newly coined phrase to cover this socio-psychological activity. Initially the concern of psychologists, sociologists and anthropologists, emotions have begun to attract the attention of historians and linguists. The relative neglect of a concerted study of emotions in the past is because emotions, like ecology or gender, are very much “invisible”. Gestures, facial expressions, vocal volume or intonation, for example, are rarely recorded in any detail. As far as Anglo-Saxon England is concerned, emotions have scarcely been studied in any systematic way and a coherent emotionology for the Anglo-Saxons is yet to be developed. This article approaches the emotion of anger in Anglo-Saxon England from various angles. First, it briefly discusses the concept of anger from a cultural-historical point of view. Next, attention is paid to the Old English anger vocabulary. Finally, a number of case studies follow to see how anger worked in Anglo-Saxon England, and to what extent order can be created in this material. I argue that anger was valued differently according to tradition and that the conversion to Christianity brought new attitudes towards it. In the Anglo-Saxon warrior culture, anger continued to play a role in constructing a man’s honour, whereas in religious circles this emotion was generally considered to be censurable.